During the past 12 months, lenders have steadily increased their margins on fixed and tracker rate mortgages, according to research by financial website, Moneyfacts. Over the past year, the Bank of England’s base rate has fallen from 5.5% to 2%. In addition the cost of borrowing on the money markets has decreased: three month sterling [...]
Lloyds TSB and its mortgage lending arm, Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G), have launched a range of new tracker deals, with rates starting at 3.69%. Two-year loans with a maximum 60% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio are available in the lender’s All Weather range as follows: 4.09% (base rate +2.09) £1995 fee applies; 4.19% (base rate +2.19) and [...]
Yesterday’s 1% cut in the Bank of England’s base rate, to 2%, has met with a mixed response from mortgage lenders. Despite pressure from Government Ministers, Halifax and Nationwide are opting not to pass on the full reduction to customers with standard variable rate (SVR) loans. So far, HSBC, Bristol & West, Lloyds TSB and [...]
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has warned banks and building societies not to use the small print in mortgage agreements to avoid passing on cuts in the Bank of England’s base rate. The Bank is widely expected to cut the base rate again this week, by up to 1%. However, some lenders have included “collars” [...]
Following the large-scale withdrawal of tracker mortgages last week, as the bank of England’s base rate fell to 3%, a number of lenders have now reintroduced tracker loans, some having increased their margins. Abbey is offering a two-year tracker deal for those with a 25% deposit, at 1.99% above base rate (4.99%) compared with an [...]
Last week’s 1.5% cut in the Bank of England’s base rate was accompanied by several leading mortgage lenders withdrawing their tracker products for repricing. This week, research has shown that interest on tracker loans is at levels last seen in January 2001. According to Bank of England figures, the average cost of a tracker mortgage [...]
Mortgage lenders have been ordered to pass on to customers yesterday’s 1.5% cut in the Bank of England’s base rate, to 3%. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, called leading lenders to a meeting early today and Prime Minister Gordon Brown is backing up the Treasury’s actions by stating that the Government is determined to [...]
Leading lenders withdrew tracker mortgages just hours before the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee agreed an historic 1.5% cut in the base rate, to 3%. Lloyds TSB and its Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) unit, Northern Rock and Woolwich have all withdrawn tracker products today. Yesterday, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) warned that lenders [...]
Abbey has announced that it is increasing rates on its two and three-year tracker mortgages for new borrowers, by up to 0.5%. The news comes as analysts are predicting that the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee will cut the base rate by least 0.5%, and possibly 1%, later this week. Tracker rates provide a [...]
Moneyfacts.co.uk has revealed that average tracker rates are at the same level as this time last year, despite a 1.25% cut in the base rate in the interim. According to Moneyfacts’ research, the average rate on a tracker mortgage is 6.27% today, compared to 6.23% in October 2007. The price comparison website’s analyst, Michelle Slade, [...]
Nationwide has increased the cost of its tracker loans by between 0.24% and 0.6%. Earlier this month the UK’s biggest building society increased rates across it range of fixed-rate mortgages, in response to volatile money market swap rates. However, this latest rise follows the Bank of England’s recent cut in the base rate, to 4.5%, [...]
Two High Street mortgage lenders have increased their tracker rates, despite last week’s 0.5% cut in the base rate. Lloyds TSB is hiking its mainstream tracker rates by between 0.3% and 0.5% and Woolwich, the mortgage lending unit of Barclays, is increasing rates on its lifetime and offset tracker deals by 0.2%. Woolwich actually reduced [...]
Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G), the mortgage lending arm of Lloyds TSB, has withdrawn some of its most competitive mortgage deals, from today. The move follows yesterday’s emergency cut in the Bank of England’s base rate, to 4.5%, which prompted leading lenders, including Halifax and C&G, to cut their standard variable rates (SVR). However, C&G has [...]
Homeowners on existing tracker mortgages will benefit from today’s 0.5% cut in the Bank of England’s base rate, to 4.5%. Halifax has already confirmed that it is reducing its standard variable rate (SVR) from 7% to 6.5%, from 1st November. Lloyds TSB and subsidiary, Cheltenham & Gloucester, are making a similar reduction in SVR, to [...]
From 5th September, Abbey is reducing rates on a number of its mortgage deals. The lender is cutting interest on its two, three and five-year fixed-rate home loans by up to 0.30%. In the case of the five-year fix with a 75% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio the rate comes down to 5.89%. The two-year at 75% [...]
RBS and its subsidiary, NatWest, have cut rates by up to 0.35% on fixed and tracker mortgages. The reductions are the second to be applied since the beginning of August and will benefit new customers and existing borrowers who need to remortgage. Applications can be made through RBS and NatWest branches and RBS and NatWest [...]
Abbey has found that demand for fixed-rate mortgages has risen sharply over the past six months. According to the lender, 52% of respondents to its survey said they would take a fixed-rate deal, compared with 35% in February and 47% in July. Twenty-one per cent of people questioned said they would take out a three-year [...]
Woolwich, which is part of the Barclays group, has launched a Lifetime Tracker mortgage at 1.19% above base rate (currently 6.19%) and with a maximum loan to value (LTV) ratio of 80%. The new loan sits alongside the lender’s existing Lifetime Tracker at 0.69% above base rate for mortgages with an LTV of up to [...]
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) is reducing interest rates for most of its mortgage products, with immediate effect. Cuts of between 0.10% and 0.55% across all but one of the bank’s home loans are accompanied by the launch of a two-year fixed-rate deal at 5.99%, which is available to both new and existing customers. A 1% [...]
Yorkshire Building Society has today launched a two-year fixed-rate mortgage with interest at 5.54%. The lender is also tempting customers with a reduced fee of £895. In addition, both Yorkshire and Abbey have announced rate cuts on various loans. Yorkshire has made amendments to an existing two-year fixed-rate mortgage that carried a 3% fee: the [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
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